The Guardian
by Leonard L. Church
Summary: When Batman is sent to investigate a weird energy surge he finds 16 year old Nicholas Moriarty, a strange young man who is far more than he appears. Now the League has to decide whether he should be treated as a threat... or as a new addition to the team. Set around the beginning of JL: Unlimited
1. Prologue

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**Hi, this is my first story ever, so please don't judge too harshly. Hope you enjoy it!**

**I don't own nothing… except my OC's. Lawyers will be dealt with accordingly.**

**Prologue**

I was surrounded on all sides. All around me was a swirling vortex of energy, twisting and pulling me in a myriad of psychedelic colors making it harder and harder to breath. I had traveled between worlds countless times in my life as a guardian, but never before had one of my portals behaved so erratic or violent. Usually it was just step through the magic hole in the air and _boom_ you're at wherever you were supposed to go. This anomaly might have been explained by my severely depleted energy reserves due to the various cuts and bullet holes bleeding me dry.

Prior to stepping through the portal I had been in a battle with one of the Empire's thrice damned death squads. Each squad was generally comprised of around ten soldiers who had undergone at least a tier one Conditioning cycle, making them stronger, faster and tougher then any normal human. The ones that had attacked me were wearing the dark yellow armor of a tier three squad. Normally I would have mopped the floor with these fools, killing them and looting anything of value from their corpses. Unfortunately, I hadn't fed in almost a month so my power reserves were almost nonexistent. What should have been a quick and bloody death on their parts ended up turning into a battle for my life. Two of them had firearms and were the first to draw blood. Two silver slugs tore into my side and shoulder before I realized they were even there. Ignoring the burning pain, I charged my attackers pulling my weapon free of its holster on my back.

The two trooper's who shot me were standing behind eight others while they reloaded. The other troopers had begun moving in after the first two rounds were fired. They had ambushed me from a dark alley on the other side of the street, their armor having been treated with special tinctures so I wouldn't smell them. The first swordsman met me halfway and made an over head chop at my head, which I easily side stepped.

"Dagger." I muttered.

The large scythe I had been wielding collapsed in on itself, before reforming into small blade that I rammed into the trooper's helmet killing him instantly. While I was still weak from hunger, I was still stronger and faster than my attackers could ever hope to be.

"Scythe."

The next three to reach me attacked simultaneously, but were all parried with twirl of my weapon. While they were still off-balance cut them down with quick horizontal swipe that tore open their bellies before they could recover. Looking to my next opponent, I narrowly missed a spear thrust to the heart that turned into a deep gash along my ribs. Wincing in pain I moved in, impaling him on the curved blade of my scythe. The pain in my shoulder, coupled with the steadily increasing amount of blood loss had begun to take their toll on my reaction time. I needed to hurry up and finish this.

"Hammer."

I was already bringing my weapon down in an overhead strike when it fully reformed, smashing through the sixth trooper's block, smashing his corpse into the cobblestones. Looking behind the remaining two troopers, I saw the two gunners had finished reloading and were lining up their shots.

"Shield."

Bringing my arm around, I smashed the shield into the seventh trooper's head, knocking him unconscious. One of the gunners fired, but was able to block it with my shield. Moving to the last trooper, I brought the shield up to swat away his weapon and grabbed him by the throat, bringing him between me and the gunners just as the second one fired. His round blew into the troopers back, coming out the front to graze my arm. The gunners didn't bother trying to reload, instead they charged, bayonets at the ready.

"Sword."

Tossing the unfortunate trooper to the side, I quickly dispatched the gunners. After the adrenaline rush subsided I felt ready to pass out. The bullet that hit me in the side had, thankfully, passed all the way through, but was bleeding profusely. The one in my shoulder wasn't bleeding as much but the bullet had gotten lodged in the bone, the silver quickly draining my meager reserves. I needed to find something to restore my power and quickly. Glancing at the remains of my attackers I was almost tempted to use them, but I knew that the empire poisoned any squad sent after me with silver, for just this situation. Looking around I noticed that the one with the spear had been wearing a cape.

'_Must've been the captain,_'I thought absently, '_Well he won't be needing it anymore._'

Taking the cape off his body I transformed my sword into a dagger, and began cutting it into strips. Most of them went to covering up the wound in my side and the cut on my chest. Before I covered up the one in my shoulder I had to dislodge the bullet. Taking a deep breath I attempted to pry the bullet out with the tip of my dagger. It came out quickly, allowing me to try and staunch the flow of blood with the last couple strips of yellow cape.

Sensing motion on a nearby rooftop I looked up to see a second squad had shown up. There appeared to only be five of them, but they were all wearing pitch black armor. The ones I had just killed had been wearing the dark yellow armor of a tier three squad. The newcomers' armor was tier 5 black. It was the Executioners. Taking on five of them would be a workout on a good day, but in my current state they'd rip me apart.

Knowing I didn't stand a chance , I quickly summoned up the last of my energy and formed a portal, not really caring to where, and ran through before they could reach me. Now, standing inside some crazy maelstrom of chaotic energy, I waited and hoped for it to end before I passed out. When the energy around me started to calm down, I was almost too out of it to notice. As soon as the energy had completely dissipated I took a few gulps of air before falling to my knees. I stayed like that for a few minutes, just kneeling down and breathing heavily, before taking in my new surroundings. I had appeared in a dark and dirty alleyway between two large buildings, which opened up into a street lit by tall metal lamps. The light they gave off didn't seem to flicker or waver like they would if made by fire, which meant they must have been either magic, highly unlikely since I didn't sense anything, or they were electrical.

Not many worlds had technology like that. I knew the Empire homeworld did, having had the misfortune of visiting that godforsaken place once before, but looking up and seeing the clear night sky uncovered by the dense black smog that covers most of their cities, I put that theory to rest. The only other place I could think of that was able to harness electricity like this was the home of my friend David; Earth, the birthplace of humankind.

Getting up off my knees, I look around and spotted my weapon, laying down next to a trash bin. Picking it up off the floor, I look it over to make sure it wasn't damaged in the portal. It had reverted to its default form. The six foot long ebony handle didn't seem to be cracked or warped and the long curved blade jutting out of the side of it seemed only mildly scorched. Wiping the scorch marks off with the sleeve of my coat revealed the gleaming silver metal underneath. Satisfied my scythe was undamaged, I strapped it into its holster on my back and headed out of the alleyway. If I didn't find something to replenish my reserves soon I was going to die from blood loss. Pushing up the sleeve of my leather coat over my right arm I started rubbing furiously at the seal on my forearm. There wasn't much of a point in suppressing my mana considering the imperials had already caught my scent. It was only a matter of time before they tracked me to Earth and I was in no shape for a stand up fight, so magic was my best bet. Thankfully my portal had landed me in a city. There was never a shortage of undesirables in cities. I grinned, showing a mouth full of razor sharp fangs.

"Let's see if we can find us a blood donor." I mutter softly, stepping out into the light of one of the street lamps.

**AU: Man I had no idea fight scenes were so hard to write! I felt that my first attempt at this chapter was a little lazy, so I felt a rewrite was in order. I'll reread my other chapters and see if they need reworked as well. Please review and tell me what you think, criticism is always welcome.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I decided to go a little AU with this. It's still set not long before Initiation but I'm gonna speed up Batman's timeline to after Barbara Gordon was paralyzed and became the Oracle. Also note that when writing from anyone but my OC's POV it'll be in 3rd person.**

**Chapter 1**

"Batman, we may have a situation."

The Dark Knight put his hand up to the communicator in his cowl. "What is it J'onn, I'm kind of busy right now." He grumbled into the com link. He had been tracking a band of bank robbers that had decided tonight was the night to knockoff the Gotham City Bank and had made off with over $200,000 in cash. After two hours of hunting them down, Batman had finally caught up to them in an abandoned apartment building on the edge of Park Row, and was crouched on a nearby roof preparing to beat them into submission.

"It is very important. Ten minutes ago, the Tower's sensors picked up a massive energy spike near your location. It only lasted for a few seconds, but the sensors read it as having a close match to the energy given off by a Boom Tube."

Batman cursed silently. The last thing he needed was an Apocalyptian invasion in Gotham. "Fine, I'll check it out."

"Very good, I'll send you the coordinates and contact the others in case you need assistance."

"I don't need-" he started but the Martian had already signed off. Batman sighed before reactivating his com. "Oracle, I'm sending you the location of the men who robbed the Gotham City Bank earlier today. Something came up and I don't want them disappearing on me, so inform the police."

A female voice sounded over the com, "Already on it. So what's so important that your handing these guys over to the boys in blue instead of doing it yourself?" she asked.

"J'onn picked up possible Boom Tube activity in Crime Alley. I'm heading over to investigate." He replied, running across the rooftops and dropping into the alleyway where he had parked the Batmobile.

"Boom Tube! You don't thinks it's Darkseid do you?" asked Oracle, panic starting to creep into her voice. The thought of that monster anywhere on Earth was a terrifying one.

"It's a possibility but I doubt it. More likely it was one of his advanced scouts or it might even be a visitor from New Genesis, but when have we ever been that lucky. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe Darkseid would be foolish enough to believe we wouldn't pick up on him opening up a Boom Tube in the middle of my city."

"I hope your right. Anyways, I contacted the police and they're on their way. Want me to contact Robin incase they run into trouble?"

"No, those crooks were nothing but small time thugs. The police shouldn't have any trouble." He retorted, starting up the Batmobile and tearing out of the alley, inputting the coordinates he'd gotten from J'onn into the GPS as he did so.

"Whatever you say," She sighed, "And Bruce? Please be careful." She quietly pleaded into the com.

"Don't worry Barbara, I'll be fine," he replied, his voice softening, "Besides, J'onn has the others on call in case I can't handle it," he muttered into the link, before deactivating the com-link. Looking down at the GPS he noted that should only be about five minutes until he reached his destination.

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I couldn't believe my luck.

It hadn't even been twenty minutes before I found a suitable victim. The man was large and muscular, around six foot, and was currently rifling through the pockets of the man he had almost beaten into unconsciousness in the middle of the sidewalk. I say almost because he was still awake enough to be moaning and blearily begging for his life.

"Please don't kill me, please, plea-oof!"

The man was cut off from his pleas when his assailant stood up, victim's wallet in hand, and kicked him hard in the stomach.

I moved as quickly and silently as my tired legs would allow behind the attacker. My wounds still hadn't closed and I was losing blood fast. If I didn't feed soon, I probably wouldn't make it through the night.

The mugger chuckled before sneering down at the broken man, "You stupid fucking prick. Did you really think you could get away without paying what you owed to the Boss? Mr. Cobblepott doesn't appreciate bein' stiffed!" the man pulled out a gun and pointed at his victims head, "Gettin' money for a liver transplant don't do you any good if you's got a fuckin' hole in your head!" The man on the ground groaned again while I moved closer to his attacker.

"You probably shouldn't be doin' that in the middle of the street, ya daft bastard."

At the sound of my voice the man swung around, and attempted to level his gun at me. I moved in quickly, grabbing his gun arm and breaking his wrist. The man howled in pain while his gun fell to the ground. Before he could do anything else, I grabbed him by his face and smashed it into the ground, just hard enough to knock him out. Despite what some people may think, knocking someone out without killing them was a lot more difficult than it looked. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes.

Hearing the approaching roar of an engine, I grabbed the now unconscious brute and dragged him into a nearby alley way. Laying his body against a wall, I wasted no more time and bite down hard on the man's neck.

**AN: Almost a full page more than last time. Hope you guys enjoyed it, and please tell me if there's anything I can do to improve. Constructive criticism is always welcome.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

He was only three miles away from his destination when he noticed the body lying down on the sidewalk. Quickly pulling over to the side, Batman jumped out of the car. The man looked to be in his mid-thirties with mouse-brown hair that was balding on top and had been beaten to within an inch of his life. Also, judging from his quiet sobs, the man was still conscious. Considering the close proximity to where the Boom Tube had opened, the man may have been attacked by whatever came through. A quick analysis of the immediate area put a damper on this theory when Batman noticed a large handgun lying next to the victim. Batman put a finger up to his ear.

"Oracle, I have a possible mugging victim close to where the Boom Tube may have opened. He's been severely beaten and needs immediate medical attention."

"Give me a second… the paramedics are on their way."

Turning his attention once more to the victim Batman kneeled down next to him. The man's face was swollen and bloody, but the man was curled up in the fetal position, arms cradling his chest and stomach. Large amounts of blunt trauma to the chest or stomach area could cause heavy internal bleeding and serious organ failure. Considering the man was still breathing, his lungs probably hadn't filled with blood, but he was still in serious danger.

"Sir, I need you to calm down and try not to move. The paramedics are already on their way, but I'm going to need you to tell me what happened."

The man's sobs quieted down to whimpers. "It was one of Penguin's thugs, Benny Thompson. I was late paying back the money I borrowed, so Penguin sent him to kill me. He was going to shoot me in the head! How the fuck am I supposed to pay him back if I'm dead!" the man exclaimed, tears running down his face.

"Cobblepott was most likely going to use you as an example. Why didn't Thompson kill you?" Batman questioned, looking back at the handgun.

The man calmed down again, but his face became confused. "Someone stopped him. I didn't see his face, but I think he was hurt. He was all cut up and bleeding. He snuck behind Benny and said something so Benny swung the gun around to shoot him. The guy must not have been hurt too badly because he broke the bastard's wrist and slammed his head into the ground." The man had started smiling slightly, enjoying the memory. The smile morphed quickly into a frown of confusion, however, as the man remembered what happened next. "I thought he was trying to help me, but he just grabbed Benny and dragged him into the alleyway."

"Thanks for the information. Remember, don't move, stay calm, and try to stay awake; the paramedics will be here soon."

Batman got up and headed towards the alleyway.

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I was in heaven. As soon as my fangs tore into the man's throat, the hot rush of blood filled my mouth. I hadn't fed in over a month, which was how those third tier clowns had gotten the drop on me, so the feeling of warmth spreading throughout my body coupled with the delicious taste of the man's blood had me in a state of euphoria. Soon I could feel the odd itching sensation of my wounds closing up, the flesh squirming and flowing together, leaving no scars.

It seems I had only just started feeding when I felt something grab me by the shoulders and fling me against the opposite wall. Feeling extremely annoyed I glance up at my attacker. He was a tall man, definitely over six foot, and heavily muscled. He was also dressed in one of the strangest outfits I had ever seen, looking for all the world like a giant bat! Not that I could really point fingers.

"Who are you?" the man growled out loudly, breaking me out of my reverie.

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Walking into the alleyway to find the mystery person kneeling over the body of the, hopefully, unconscious Benny Thompson with his face buried in the man's neck, Batman immediately grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him against a wall. Glancing quickly at the bloody bite marks on the unconscious man's neck, and noticed they were definitely not made by human teeth. Batman looked over at the person he'd thrown against the wall who was looking up at him with annoyance. He couldn't have been older than sixteen. The boy had on a large black overcoat that was ripped and torn in numerous places. His hair was black, coming down past his ears, and his eyes were a piercing green. On his back was what appeared to be a… scythe?

"Who are you?" Batman growled down at the boy.

The boy's look of annoyance had slowly faded, replaced by a mix of confusion and amusement.

"Could ask you the same thing buddy," the boy replied, an Irish accent coloring his words, "that's a mighty queer getup ya' have on there, Mr. Bat. Little much don't ya' think?"

Batman glared down at the boy who had stood up and was beginning to brush himself off.

"Either Dracula's back in town or you're the one who came through the portal, aren't you?" Batman accused. He wasn't certain the boy was the one but, not being one to put much stock in coincidence, he wanted to catch the boy off guard and see his reaction.

He wasn't disappointed.

The boy's eyes widened in surprise. "How the hell-"

Gotcha, "You didn't really think we wouldn't detect a Boom Tube opening up in the middle of one our major cities did you?" Batman asked, his voice loaded with derision, "Judging from the bite marks on Benny over here, I doubt you're from New Genesis, and I don't think Dark Seid would be stupid enough to send a spy straight to Gotham and not expect us to detect it. So again, who are you and why did you come to Earth?"


	4. Chapter 3

I looked up at the strange man in shocked disbelief. How the _hell_ did he know anything about portals? I couldn't sense any power coming from him so he couldn't be a Guardian, and from what he was saying it was unlikely he was an imperial. The conversations I'd had with David about his homeworld had led me to believe that this world didn't even _believe_ in the supernatural, but from the sounds of it not only did these people have a way of detecting portals, they apparently had experience with other worlds.

I was broke out of my musings when I felt a surge of power coming from the direction I had come from.

'_Shit! I didn't think they'd be able to find me that quickly.' _I thought with annoyance. I had consumed just enough blood to recover from my last fight, but I was still much too weak to win a fight against Executioners, even with magic. Bringing my attention back to the jackass in black, I tried to come up with a way to get out of this alive. '_I could kill the guy and finish off what's-his-name, but I might pay for that later on. This guy said _we_ so he's probably part of a group. A group that has the power to track portals, and they've apparently had previous contact with hostile forces from other worlds and been victorious. Not very many worlds had the knowledge or power to move between worlds, and those that did were not to be trifled with. To have been able to repel an invasion by any one of them was no mean feat, and killing one of their members was probably a bad idea if I wanted their help. If I could turn them against the imperials I might come out of this on top. New allies were always welcome. Regardless, just the two of us would get slaughtered if we tried fighting five executioners on our own. Speaking of, they should be here any moment so the best bet would be to retreat and call for reinforcements.'_

The man with the cape had put his hand to his ear, still keeping his glare trained on me. I heard faint voices coming from his ear.

'_Must be a communicator in there. His companions probably detected the second portal like they did with mine,' _I thought, '_that should make things a little easier._'

My would-be interrogator was muttering heatedly to whoever was on the other end of the communicator and was starting to look annoyed.

"_I told you before J'onn, this is my city and I don't need backup! I don't care if you picked up more readings, I found the one who set the sensors off the first time and if he's anything to go by the others shouldn't be much of a threat." _I heard the man mutter into his communicator.

Now I was starting to get annoyed, '_This might be a problem. Well we can't stay here, and this guy sounds like he's gonna be troublesome. Time for a change in venue.'_

Before the man could react I dashed forward and grabbed him by the arm. I crouched down before jumping up as hard as I could without ripping the man's arm out of his socket, almost clearing the roof of the three story buildings next to us. Once we'd reached the apex of my jump I tapped into my magic reserves. Giving a sparing glance to my passenger to see if he was still all there I accelerated upwards, gaining altitude until I could see over most of the buildings, before speeding off away from the enemy.

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The boy had moved with inhuman speed and had cleared the buildings on either side before rocketing even higher into sky and then off towards the river. The sudden acceleration almost ripped his arm out of its socket. Struggling to bring his free hand to his communicator, the wind pressure was trying to pin it to his side, Batman got his hand up enough to activate it before his hand was once again flattened against his side.

"J'onn!" he shouted above the roar of the wind.

"Batman, what's happened? Do you require assistance?"

"The first target grabbed me and is flying west towards Liberty River! He's moving too fast for me to stop him on my own!"

"Flash and Wonder Woman are moving to intercept. Superman is heading for the second anomaly."

Despite himself, Batman couldn't help but still feel annoyed that the other leaguers would be in Gotham. Hopefully they wouldn't be followed by their respective villains."Tell them to hurry, our current trajectory has us heading towards Wayne Manor!"


End file.
